a very frazzled August

A more than frantic August! Wow, we have been busy, busy. We attended the museum tour and lecture about armor, which surprisingly was very good. Went to Carlow for a streets food cooking class, which was GREAT!!! Carlow Cookery is my new favorite place to go for a casual evening!
Had a small do with incompatible acquaintances that turned into a big and less than pleasant do. We have not had many events where we invite folks together for dinner parties like we did in the past – probably will have less now. I think we will continue to meet and arrange larger groups at restaurants or public venues the way that we’ve been doing. Safer. Perhaps people tend to behave themselves – drink less because they have to pay for meal/booze themselves. Perhaps home is a safer place than public to act out. High maintenance, needy friends. Arggh! I have enough trouble managing myself for goodness sakes.
Alina ran us ragged before Shannon came with the kids but it was a good ragged.
We went to the Kosciuszko Fnd. Fundraiser concert. It sounds as though they are happy to have volunteers to help out with their events. The musicians were pleasant, but not perfect. But it was about the evening itself, not perfection.
Shannon came with the twin crew and we have been trying to keep them busy and give her a break. Both Brian and I are feeling our age, as well as our propensity to be set in our ways! But they are so damn cute and turning into little people.
The few days that Alina was here with them were TRULY hectic. We had a photographer out with them to try and get family photos of all three. Thank goodness for children’s photographers because I would be pulling out my hair. Alina did not like him and the twins were less than pleased as well. I am hoping that he managed to pull off some cute shots though.
Brian and Shannon did Carlow’s tomato and corn class and we now have Shannon as a tomato convert. She had always hated them in the past – vestiges of being raised in W. Texas for so many years where the produce sucked.
Joined Sandi, Hank, and Ashley with the crew at the shore for 3 days – or as the girls called it – the “bitch.” They loved playing in the waves and sand, although J. was much more adventurous than Sophie. Ashley was a god send. They loved her.
We took a hiatus from the Thornburgs last weekend and took ourselves to Avalon with the Tulmans and the Simpsons. As always we had a wonderful time. Avalon is my all time favorite beach. Bitch??
So, September is upon us and I don’t feel a bit rested and the calendar is packed, packed, packed already. Looking so forward to our Canadian vacation – where it will be cool and less hectic!

things

Can things make you happy? Finally, studies that confirm what I have suspected for a while and all point to one conclusion: spending money for an experience – concert tickets, French lessons, sushi-rolling classes, a hotel room in Monaco – produces longer lasting satisfaction than spending money on plain old stuff. Whereas most physical goods tend to lose their appeal as the purchaser becomes accustomed to them, experiences strengthen social bonds and pay dividends over time. We reminisce about them, talk about them and even the most hellish of vacations or road trips turn out to be money well spent.

guest aggravation

Good grief! This is the second time in recent memory that I have had a guest who had too much to drink get belligerent and obnoxious to another guest. The first time was in a discussion with my son in law, Mike, who was opining on a perfectly legitimate topic regarding end of life decisions and got clobbered verbally by a friend who took offense and took Mike’s opinion personally. Poor Mike – not only was he taken aback by the vitriol, but as far as I was concerned he was correct in his views. The other day’s fiasco concerned health care reform and a friend, who is pretty opinionated, not backing off on his views when it was clear that the other guest had one that was opposite to his. Arghh! I thought fisticuffs would result!
When I select guests I always want to choose an interesting mix of characters, but how to make sure they will all get along? It doesn’t do to invite people who are known to clash with other dinner guests or cause heated debates. No one wants tension at a dinner party. But how to predict this? I want my dinner parties to be lively, stress-free events, and invite guests who are good conversationalists, especially those who are known to bring along their sense of humor. But how to predict? We often have folks who disagree with our politics, and we simply do not get into debates with them, knowing that they hold opinions that we won’t change – nor do we want to. That seems to work well. When we get close to a topic that seems touchy, we simply change it. Although I don’t know why we can’t have a reasoned discussion about controversial topics, it just does not work most of the time.
So, I now know that I won’t invite those two folks with others, as once is one time too much as far as I am concerned. They now go on the short left side of my guest list that is reserved for people to have by themselves to dinner. Oh well, live and learn.

July doings

Another month of whirlwind activites. Grace and Jan had a 4th of July party with fireworks watching at their house. Grace has such talent putting together a beautiful dinner party. The food was wonderful and the presentation was sublime! The woman should have been a stager of events! Of course the company was wonderful as well and it was great to see Jan on his feet and healthy again. Went to Sandy and Hanks for the day at LBI during a cooler day this month and the shore was gorgeous. We really lucked out on the weather. Empty nesters were over for a swim and picnic and that was a nice evening and we saw Barbara and Gene in NJ at the Spanish Tavern. I love those two and will never forget our bonding at our ill fated Ukranian adventure. I'd only opt to be with them in a ship wreck!
I went to one of the writer's group meetings and that was a bust. No one but the organizer and me knew anything about writing. I told her that I did not need to be in English comp 101 where people could not move an argument forward in a linear way. And I quit.
Alina was over for 3 days and then a weekend this month. What a chatterbox! Now she is beginning to chatter in Polish as well as English.
We also attended her 2nd birthday party. Must have been the hottest day of the year in Philly that day. I melted -- and so did she. After 2 hours, she asked to go home and when we took her there, she actually asked for a nap. I know how she felt.
Went to see Second City at the Philadelphia Theatre Company. Very funny show. Sephen Colbert is a graduate of Second City. It looks as though the PTC has an interesting season scheduled and I think we may go for season tickets as all of the shows sound good.
We went to the Constantine Tapestries collection tour at the museum and found it to be surprisingly intersting. I had not been enthusiastic about that one, but goes to show you that you should never pre-judge. It turns out to be one of the more interesting tours we've taken and both of us learned a lot. Afterward we stopped to visit an old friend that we hadn't seen for a while in Philly and we remembered why we distanced ourselves. Lordy, life is way too short to be with negative people. Plus, I remember that relationship -- it was one of those 90% us and 10% her, consistently. I felt lucky to get outta there without a cloud over my head!
Motameds and Rohovskys came to dinner. I FINALLY managed to get the 4 if them and us together after trying for two years. Had a great time and it was super to see that they were such a good match considering that we all live so close.
Bill and Ken came over for a swim and cheese/wine. It's been a while since we've gotten together with them. Will have to have them over when Shannon and the twins are here in August/Sept.
We went to Carlow Cookery and took a class on grilling fish. That was our first cookery class and we had SO much fun. We definitely will do that again. There were about 20 students and it was a really congenial class. Sampling all that food (all 5 dishes) was the highlight. The only one I didn't like that well was salmon, but I only like wild salmon for the most part. Actually, that was the first time in 6 months that I went back on my resolution to not eat seafood. I am really concerned about the overfishing and the fact that we are gobbling tuna AND that it has become an endangered species. Besides, when I think about what is being dumped into the ocean, I cringe.
We took a road trip to Bushkill falls, where I hadn't been since I was a little girl. It was a great hike, but the falls were a lot less impressive than they were from what I remember as a child. Things do seem smaller when one grow up. Funny thing about that.
Last week we went to NYC to the Met's Costume Institute and to see The Adam's Family with Nathan Lane. The Met exhibit was the best that I've seen there over the years -- and we've seen many exhibits there. The Adam's Family was really cute. Nathan Lane was good -- as always. And the actress that played Morticia was spectacular.
My facebook is yeilding some surprising results. I am connecting with some old friends and think now that we actually might have a reunion for the 50th. I also have been connecting with folks who have the same interests as I do and this has been the best part of this social networking site. I have become good buddies with a woman who has the same background as I do. Her father was deported to Siberia and he lived in the same town as my father. We are meeting face to face in October. I'm glad that I didn't let the drivel that some people post turn me off -- turning off is the purpose of unfriending!
So, this looks forward to another great month. Shannon and the twins will be here into September. I look forward to my time teaching Polish to the twins.
The only downer is that September -- and hence the beginning of the semester -- is upon us. Oh well, just another year of UMDNJ left.